1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pads or padded bandages particularly useful in covering and/or protecting the body from injury and/or covering and/or protecting an injury or wound on-the body. In particular the present invention is a light-in-weight and reduced-in-bulk pad useful particularly in the upper leg and hip area for preventing injury to the hip. It can also prevent sores from occurring and be used for protecting the upper leg and hip region where the individual using the padded bandage has been subjected to surgery on the hip or some wound in the upper leg and/or hip region.
2. Prior Art
There are, in the United States alone, approximately 150,000 to 200,000 hip fractures each year. Many of the hip fractures require surgical procedures to properly align the fractured bone so as to promote proper healing. Surgery, especially hip surgery, normally results in a wound on the outside of the hip region, which is more often difficult to protect, especially when the patient becomes ambulatory. Protective pads have been designed to protect hip surgical wounds and other hip wound areas. Some of these are large domelike pads formed by a large, rigid outer shell. The size of the wound and/or wound area dictates the size of the protective pad to be used and as the size of the wound and/or wound area increases both the bulk and weight of the protective pad increase.
The overall bulk of this type of hip region protective pad is objectionable, to the user of such pad, especially since the rigid shell forming it is not flexible.